Rick Cardenas's (rcardenas) Blog

Thank you for choosing Premier Plus Financial Services.  We look forward to helping you In an effort to limit risky borrower behavior, Fannie Mae announced a new round of mortgage guideline changes last week.  Unlike previous its previous 20-plus updates that raised income requirements and minim...

Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded both its largest one-day point gain andsecond-largest one-day point loss in history.  Mortgage markets got whipsawed, too. From day to day, huge rate swings made mortgage rate shopping difficult.  It wasn't uncommon for lenders to change pricin...

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is a mortgage lender's insurance policy against highly-leveraged homeowners.  It's typically required when homeowner equity is less than 20 percent at the time of closing. With PMI defaults up 40 percent over last year, private mortgage insurers are taking big lo...

As the stock market dips then jumps then dips again, it's important to remember that markets are unpredictable and nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop the analysts from trying. An obvious example comes from May of this year.   As the price of oil crossed $120...

For many Placentia homeowners with soon-to-adjust adjustable rate mortgages, the recent banking turmoil worldwide may lead to budgetary pain. This is because most conforming ARMs made since 2003 are based on a borrowing cost called LIBOR and LIBOR is up an uncharacteristic 2 percent since Septem...

Throughout the feverish activity on Wall Street last week, mortgage bonds sold off with force, driving mortgage rates to their highest levels since July. It was the fourth straight week in which mortgage rates worsened. But, with the mortgage markets closed Monday, stock markets rallied to their...

Given the stock market's recent performance, it's not surprising that gasoline's falling prices are garnering very little attention. That doesn't make it any less relevant, however.  Since peaking in July, gas prices are off by 20 percent. Falling gas prices are an important positive for the U.S...

Buyers are returning to the housing market. Each month, The National Association of REALTORS® tracks homes under contract to sell, but whose closing has not yet happened. It calls them "pending sales" and publishes a monthly report to quantify them.  The Pending Home Sales report is important be...

  The Federal Reserve made an "emergency rate cut" this morning, dropping the Fed Funds Rate by one half-percent to 1.500 percent. The move is meant to stimulate the U.S. economy. When the Federal Reserve changes the Fed Funds Rate, it often takes 9 months for the changes to work their way throug...

  Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below the psychologically-important 10,000 level for the first time since 2004.  Despite the milestone-marker breach, there was a large group of Americans with reason to cheer.  As stocks sold off, mortgage markets rallied to the benefit of home b...